Montréal Suzuki String Orchestra (MSSO) Tour of Europe. PARENT MEETING MINUTES: 14 May 2017

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1 Montréal Suzuki String Orchestra (MSSO) Tour of Europe PLANNING PHILOSOPHY: Working Smarter, Not Harder. PARENT MEETING MINUTES: 14 May 2017 please sent corrections to Francine PRESENT: Cecilia McDonnell (Tiarnán), Stephanie Coriat (Raquel), Francine Cytrynbaum (Zara), Nikita Chu (Sammi), Rick (Charli), Laura ( Jonathan), Gaby, Yan, Joshua ( Léa), Wen Qing Long (Ivy & Ivan), Alice Li (Kiana), Tamara (Alice), Tak Pan Wong (Brandon), Paul Wu (Justin & Neo), Joselina ( Rafaella, Gabriela, Alejandro) Zosia Buckiewicz Aynsley (Dragan), Dave, Jim Pfaus (Joshua), Sue, Adele Blackett ( Baï Daisy), Andrea (Nicolas), Josée, Fiona (Alice) Lila, Jackie, Paul, Dominic ( Léanne), François (Audrey), Ingrid (Heidi), Mike, Philippe Arsenault & Stéphanie Murphy (Anouk) 1. INTRODUCTION & WELCOME Cecilia welcomed everyone, and gave a background to the meeting: a brief overview of the history of the China tour and the reasons for the decision to have a Europe tour rather than the initially proposed trip to Cuba based on the greater musical opportunities of the Europe tour. Explanation that some of the core parent organizers of the China tour volunteered to use their hard won experience to create the framework for starting to organize the Europe Tour, and then open up to all interested parents to take on leadership for di erent needs. 2. WHO IS INVOLVED? (reported by Cecilia) Conductor Dragan Djerkic (personal solo business, not a nonpro t) Advanced Orchestra plus additional cello and viola invitees 64 maximum participants on tour (Total: youth & adults) Dragan s Goal: 100% of the orchestra will be able to participate on tour Parents Executive Committee Committee Chair: Cecilia McDonnell (mother of Tiarnán) Treasurer: Nikita Chu (mother of Sammi) Secretary: Francine Cytrynbaum (mother of Zara) Parent Sub-committees (see handout) 3. OVERVIEW OF TOUR (report by Stephanie Coriat) Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival and Competition (July 2018) Stephanie Coriat met with the organizer in Vienna last week. Our orchestra was accepted already in the competition based on submitted youtube footage of recent concerts.

2 13 Day Cultural exchange and performance tour Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Prague under the patronage of UNESCO. The company organizes and promotes the festival as well as concert tours. Tours have links with musical history (Sound of Music tour, visit to Mozart s homes...) Stronger musical education experience than the 2016 Tour of China Includes detailed and organized workshops, competition, concert and behind the scenes tours Hotels have rehearsal space Possible opportunity for school educational credit Cost: $4500 each (subject to change pending currency and ight price uctuations) Orchestras and choirs come from Australia, China, Iraq, Serbia, all over. Lots of opportunities for exchange. The tour concerts will include other orchestras as well. For the competition, xed pieces are required (20 minutes), performing for judges on one single day. We are aiming for a 1:4 parent/child ratio. Limited number of parents can be chaperones, but other parents and families who come to Europe at the same time can get discount tickets to the concerts, but would not be included in the package (which may end up being cheaper). Chaperone parents are expected to have responsibilities as volunteers and take leadership prior to and throughout the tour. 4. Travel (reported by Philippe Arsenault) Philippe works in wholesale travel, agreed to look into airfares. Challenges: we want the whole group travelling together, and limit transfers for safety reasons, during peak travel season which means that prices will not be as good and there will not be exibility. The group will travel in and out of Munich and stay together for the duration of the tour. Jim Pfaus proposed that parents who are interested in travelling to Europe, not as chaperones, but on a shadow tour can organize themselves collectively to bene t from group rates or shared planning/booking. 5. KEY DATES May 17 Orchestra survey and request for commitment May 21 NO orchestra or group May 28 Dress Rehearsal June 4 Concert, Orchestra photos, wine reception (Oscar Peterson) Pizza lunch sales and 50/50 ra le July- August SUMMER BREAK!! PAYMENT DATES 2017 September January 30

3 2017 November March OPPORTUNITIES TO BE INVOLVED Parent Volunteers needed (see handout) Outreach: seeking funding and public performance opportunities Joshua o ered to volunteer to help with nances. Rick proposed a bene t concert that can highlight other talents of orchestra members (singers) and parents Zosia does photography, though there will be a professional photographer coming to the concert in order to take some o icial photos. Cecilia has started a web site, it will be mostly in English, and Stephanie Coriat will translate areas and other documents as needed into French. 7. COMMUNICATION May 17 Orchestra Survey (please complete asap) Tour website link through Dragan s new site: DraganDjerkic.com MontrealSuzukiOrchestra.com Features: parent meeting minutes, updates, fundraising resources Sponsors will be featured on website, social media and press releases Language of communication: Parent communication will be in English (please see Alice or Stephanie Coriat for Chinese or French translations) Formal government funding requests in French / bilingual? Blog entries alternate FR/ EN Sample fundraising letters bilingual? Social Media FUNDRAISING (Reported by Francine): Francine reviewed the key lessons learned from the experience of fundraising for China. The

4 decision then was to share all proceeds from funds raised, however some parents/orchestra members raised much more from individual solicitation than others, some donors wanted money to go to particular students. The proposal for this tour is to have some of the fundraising proceeds to be collective, some to be designated for bursary, and some individual. The reason for the idea of having a bursary is to allow for any orchestra member to participate regardless of nancial status to make it accessible, and to ensure that we have enough participants to lower everyone s costs as busses are xed costs. We also hope to keep things simple, get the most for our e orts and have the students take as much ownership as possible for the fundraising. FUNDING CATEGORIES Individual credit (individual payments, designated individual gifts from friends & family, personal GoFundMe pages,cashback credit card bonuses) Shared credit (for students participating in small group fundraising activities together) Group credit: (public grants, business donations, group activities; such as orchestra concerts, ra les, pizza sales, ower sales, resto nights, t-shirt sales, and any non-designated donations ) Bursary Fund: designated funds to subsidize individual and group costs. Dragan and Cecilia will determine the bursary distributions to protect privacy. Information about bursaries will be kept con dential. 9. BANK ACCOUNT Francine explained that we need a Group Bank Account with a speci c name, a president and signing o icers, the parents being the group. The name suggested and adopted unanimously is Montreal Suzuki String Orchestra. The president proposed and adopted unanimously by the parents is Cecilia McDonnell. The signing o icers proposed by Philippe Arseneault, seconded by Paul Wu and adopted unanimously by the parents are Cecilia McDonnell, Nikita Chu and Francine Cytrynbaum. 10. VARIA Girls are asked to avoid wearing short skirts for concerts, and to wear black sheer nylons for the photograph in order to look professional. A Survey will be sent out by Cecilia to all orchestra parents (in order to include some who

5 may have been deterred by the cost, or may be more interested in Europe than Cuba) to get a clear idea of numbers of participants/chaperones. Need to verify with Dragan rehearsal expectations between the end of school and the ight to Europe. We need to recruit cellists. Dragan is putting out feelers. Respectfully submitted, Francine Cytrynbaum